


Vamping Trip

by lightning_troubadour



Series: The Hollywood Vampires Saga [1]
Category: Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios
Genre: Gen, Multi, Vamp '55, really nothing but fluff and friendship here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-10-14 15:55:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10539726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightning_troubadour/pseuds/lightning_troubadour
Summary: The Vampires of Hollywood High decide to do something different during one of their many summer vacations- to take a camping trip!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blossomgutz](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=blossomgutz).



> Hey! So, this is my first contribution to the HHN fandom. It may not be much now, but I can guarantee you guys are gonna be seeing a lot more from me soon. Most of my 1950s slang came from here http://fiftiesweb.com/pop/1950s-slang/ 
> 
> I'll be honest here, half of the names I just made up, and some of them I took from my friend tumblr user blossomgutz, since very few of the vampires have canon names.

On a clear summer night in Hollywood, California, there was a small old house that no one lived in. Even though it had been abandoned for years, there were motorcyles parked just outside, and through the open window the distant sounds of chattering and music could be heard as a group of young rebels without a cause spent the night reveling and enjoying one another's company. Now, in the year 1955 the occurrence of teenagers sneaking out of their houses and away from their families to spend all night partying with friends was not an uncommon one, but this particular circumstance was unique: this group of rebellious teenagers was no ordinary one, this was one of Hollywood's youngest coven of vampires. 

"Hey Johnny, play that one Bill Haley song!" shouted John "Cass" Cassidy, a former baseball player.   
"I've got you, man!" Johnny yelled back, taking off his sunglasses and putting them in his pocket before digging through his record collection. "Hey, there it is!" he cried out as he placed the record into the grammophone the previous owner had left behind. Before they knew it, swinging beats and joyful trumpets filled the room. Scarlet, the most recently turned of the vampires, began to snap her fingers and sway her head to the beat of the song. To her, this night was perfect. She was surrounded by her own kind, free from society's conventions and free to pursue the love of her life that the world of the day would forbid her from being with; she had powers beyond imagination, she could do just about anything she wanted, the beautiful homecoming queen Donna even agreed to run away with her as soon as fall came around! Yet, something seemed missing, and Scarlet couldn't help but let out a sigh. Since he was standing right near her, the unofficial leader of the pack, the pink-haired troublemaker known only as Clifford, turned to look at her, and asked her, "Hey Scar, you alright?"   
Scarlet immediately looked up and over at her much taller friend, and responded, "Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm on cloud nine! It's just that..." She trailed off as her head began to droop down.  
"It's just that what?" Clifford asked.  
Scarlet took a deep breath and lifted her head, musing, "It's summer vacation, and don't get me wrong, hanging out with you guys is wicked cool, but it just doesn't feel like summer to me. Guess I still haven't gotten used to the night life yet, huh?"   
"Yeah, it takes a bit but once you're used to it, it's all smooth sailing from there. Now that I think of it, I can't remember a summer I haven't spent as a vampire, what do humans even do in the summertime?"  
Scarlet smiled, and began to giggle, "Well, I remember throwing pool parties at friends' houses, and watching the fireworks on the Fourth of July, and sometimes my family and I would go on a camping trip!"   
"Camping trip?" Clifford brought his hand to his chin and began stroking an invisible beard. "Hmmm...." He snapped his fingers and his eyes went wide, as if he had just figured out how to fix a seemingly unsolvable issue with his motorcycle's engine. "Eureka! Hey, everyone! I just got a wicked neat idea! Let's go camping!" 

The other vampire youths turned to look at their pink-haired companion. "Camping? Like, with tents and stuff, that kind of camping?" Johnny's younger brother Giovanni smirked, cocking an eyebrow. "Why would we wanna go camping?"   
Clifford, now standing up on the table Scarlet was sitting on, replied, "Come on, when's the last time any of you have been out of town? It may not be Paris or anything, but it'll still be an adventure!"   
Lola, the second eldest of the vampires, chimed in, "Cliff, don't get me wrong, that sounds swell, but how are we gonna keep from dying in the sun? There's no guarantee the tents will be enough to protect us."   
"You know something, sister? You're onto something there." Clifford replied, before pausing for a second. "Hey, I know! All the leaves on the trees will have grown in, so we'll find the shadiest spots in the woods to set up tents. And we can probably go nab some sheets or something before we go, and hang them up on the insides of our tents to block out more sunlight!"   
At that, Lola turned to look over at Rudy, who shrugged his shoulders at her and said,"Eh, it could work. Maybe we can get a bite to drink while we're there, not like too many people will be around."   
Cass immediately piped in with, "He has a point, this could be a real boss bash if we play our cards right! Count me in!"   
"If Cass is going, I'm right behind him." Rudy followed. "Johnny, Giovanni, you guys coming too?"   
The two vampire brothers looked at one another, then Giovanni exclaimed, "Sounds like a blast, we're in!"   
Lola smiled, and said, "Yeah, alright, this should be fun. Besides, someone needs to keep you hoods outta trouble. Any ideas on when we want to do this?" 

The discussion began to swell as the group of youths began planning their adventure, and Scarlet couldn't help but beam at the fact that even though she left her old family behind, her new family would still keep the tradition of camping trips alive.


	2. Chapter 2

After two weeks of discussing, planning, obtaining supplies through means that weren't always one hundred percent legal, and figuring out a way to store blood in bottles to take on the trip in case there were not any unlucky campers around, the night of the trip had finally arrived. Their plan was to head for the woods just after sunset, and find a nice place to set up camp before the sun rose again. 

Much to Cass' chagrin, they went to a rental car company the night before and rented out a van for the trip since there was no way they could carry all of their supplies as well as themselves on motorcycles. The road leading to the small camping ground was very poorly lit and constantly winding, and while the low light had little impact on the vampires' sense of sight, the unknown land strongly impacted their sense of direction. 

"Cliff, I am telling you, we missed the turn five minutes ago! You have to turn around before we all turn to dust!" argued Lola from the middle front seat.   
Keeping his eyes on the road, Clifford sighed and said, "Sis, I am telling you, we didnt miss the turn, Giovanni's got the map and he'll tell you that there won't be another turn for at least another 10 miles. Right, Gio?"   
"Hm?" Giovanni mumbled, having been completely zoned out for the past ten minutes. "The map? Yeah, I think I'm sitting on-" he adjusted himself to pull the map out from underneath him, only to find nothing but the seat. Silence filled the car, and then Giovanni softly said,   
"Guys, it has just occured to me that I am not sitting on the map." 

Within seconds, the car was filled to the brim with noise. Lola was yelling at her brother to pull over, Clifford and Johnny both scolded Giovanni over his losing the map in such a way that would make their teacher proud, and Giovanni was arguing back that it has to still be in the car somewhere since no one rolled the window down, Cass was complaining that this wouldn't have happened had they just taken the motorcycles, and Scarlet was audibly praying that they wouldn't get pulled over. The only one not speaking was Rudy, and that was solely due to the fact that he could barely make out a word of what was being said since so many things were happening at once. 

Clifford, rather frustrated at this, pulled over the van and said, "Alright, everyone get out of the car and start looking for the map."   
The other vampires did as they were told, and yet the map was still nowhere to be found, until Rudy opened the glove compartment to grab the comb he left in there, exclaiming, "Look, if I'm gonna die out here, I at least wanna look good when I- oh wow. Hey guys, look what I just found!"   
He proceeded to hold up the once-missing map. Several glances were shot Giovanni's way with various degrees of anger, to which he replied, "Okay, I know for a fact that I didn't put that there."

Soon the vampires were on the road once more, driving nearly aimlessly until they saw a sign that said "Campground: 2 miles" with an arrow pointing to the right. The only minor hitch was that by this point it was 5:30 in the morning, and the sun would be rising soon. Immediately, Scarlet piped in from the back, "Hey, guys, I don't mean to scare anyone or anything but by the time we get there, we may only have a half an hour to find a place to set up for the night, and from my own experience that takes some time longer than a half hour."  
Johnny turned to look at Scarlet and asked, "So what do you propose we do?"   
"Alright guys, hear me out," Scarlet began, "there's a very good chance we'll have to go off the road and sleep in the car, and we'll have to grab the sheets for inside the tents out of the trunk and hang them in the windows."  
Rudy and Cass exchanged looks, being two of the biggest guys in the group, and Cass piped up,   
"Now see, you might be able to sleep in this thing, but do we look like we're gonna be able to? One of me is the size of two of you! There is no way this is gonna work out!"   
At this point Clifford had turned into the campgrounds and began laughing. "I mean it can work, but we're all gonna have to get real comfy with each other real fast for it to work."   
He turned off the road and into the woods where hopefully no humans would spot the car, and found a nice shady spot in between two very large trees. "Alright, someone go get the sheets. We've gotta burn rubber if we wanna make it to tomorrow night."   
Johnny helped Lola set up the black sheet sets in all the windows in order to keep the sunlight out while the others stood outside to give them room to work, Scarlet shifting her small form back and forth between her left and right feet out of anxiety for the coming sun. Lola gave them the thumbs up, and they all quickly piled back into the car, locking the doors to keep some poor curious soul from opening one of the doors and exposing them all to the sun's deadly light. 

Rudy elected to sleep sitting upright, claiming "If I can do it in Miss B's class just about every day, I can do it for one day."   
Clifford, Lola, and Giovanni all leaned on one another to sleep since they all sat in the same row, and Rudy, Cass, and Johnny did the same. Due to how small she was, Scarlet had been sitting on Johnny's lap for most of the trip, much to her chagrin; however since she was small enough, she elected to lay down on the floor across her three friends' feet, cautioning them that "If any of you kick me in my sleep, I'm throwing you out of this car." That comment elicited a small chuckle from Johnny, which was cut short by one of Scarlet's classic "try me" glares. 

As the sun rose over the forest, the van full of vampires slowly drifted off to sleep in a jumbled pile of bodies that would either result in them looking back fondly about it, or all taking a vow never to speak of that day again.


	3. Chapter 3

As the sky transitioned from a cheerful blue to a dignified black in a small patch of California woods, the group of teenage vampires slowly began to awaken in the cramped van they all fell asleep in. They giggled as they untangled themselves from the impromptu cuddling pile they found themselves in. Rudy pulled back one of the opaque black sheets on the van window and pulled back immediately, clutching the left side of his face and screaming in agony. The others in the car leaped into alertness and panicked.   
"Oh my god, man, what happened?" asked Cass.  
"Rudy, are you alright?" shouted a very frightened Lola.  
It was at this point Rudy pulled his hand from his pale and very much unscathed face and his howls of pain turned into laughter. "Ah man, I got you guys so good! I wish I had a camera or something, your faces were priceless!" he snickered.   
"Why I oughta..." Scarlet muttered angrily under her breath, along with various strings of inaudible profanities.  
Clifford rolled his eyes and said, "Well, at least he's not disfigured by the sun. Now Scarlet on the other hand, she might really mess his mug up for that, but that probably won't be for a bit. Alright gang, let's get our stuff and start hoofing it till we find our campsite!"   
The vampires all nodded and immediately left the van, taking the sheets down to reveal the safe night around them, and Giovanni piped in, "Looks like there's enough space right here to set up the tents next to the van, actually. Could be good for a getaway too, you know, in case something comes up."  
Lola looked out her window and replied, "Yeah, this actually wouldn't be too bad of a place! That solves that, huh?" 

Once everyone left the car and grabbed their things, they began to set up the three tents they planned on sleeping in during the day. Scarlet, having experience in setting up a camp before, demonstrated the necessary procedure for pitching a tent to her companions, some of whom were quicker to catch on than others. Johnny and Clifford decided to share a tent, and found themselves nearly glued to the sheet of directions that came with the tent in order to complete it. Rudy, Cass, and Giovanni were too busy having a three-man sword fight with the tent poles to care. Casting glances at one another, Lola and Scarlet snatched the tent poles from their three friends and suggested that they be the ones in charge of building the tent. After about an hour's worth of time, the makeshift campsite was done, and the tents' inhabitants threw their bags into their respective tents. 

"So, anyone want to go looking for wood for a campfire?" Clifford asked, before leaning in toward Scarlet and whispering "We're supposed to have a campfire, right?", to which she replied with an assuring nod and a gleeful fanged smile. She then raised her hand, since the camping trip was partially her idea. Johnny, who was considered the group's best hunter, also volunteered. The pair went off into the woods, collecting sticks they found on the ground and smashing fallen branches on the ground to break them into more portable pieces. 

Their search lead them to a small beach, completely empty, though with a lucky abundance of sticks near the edge between the sand and the forest floor. Scarlet moved onto the beach to get a closer look at this serene spot, and instantly thoughts of her beloved Donna flooded to her. The moon's reflection on the lake reminded her of the way Donna's luminous blue eyes lit up as she smiled, the white sand beneath her feet reminded her of her soft, pale skin, and she was consumed with thoughts of bringing Donna here when they ran off together. Without realizing it, she softly said aloud, "Oh, Donna, wait till you see this."   
Johnny couldn't help but mockingly repeat, "Oh, Donna! Donna my love, Donna my sweetheart!" before bursting into laughter.   
Scarlet whipped her head around, cheeks flushed red with a mix of her infatuation for Donna and her anger at Johnny, shouted, "Get bent, Johnny!"   
After wiping away a small tear of laughter from his eye, Johnny said, "Sorry Scar, I just can't help it. You sound like you're in a movie or something. Besides, here you are, Little Miss Tough Chick, and next thing you know you're swooning over the school's queen bee! Hell, I still can't believe she talked you into joining the cheer squad in the first place." After a short pause, he looked at her, smiling, and said, "You really do love her, don't you?"   
Scarlet nodded, replying, "Yes, I really do. I've never felt the way I do for her about anyone as long as I've lived, and I don't think I ever will again."   
"Well," Johnny said, "If you care about her, she's always welcome with us. Come on, Cupid. Let's go get this firewood back to the rest of the gang, they might think Van Helsing came for us or something." Scarlet let out a chuckle, picked up the wood she gathered, and they walked off back into the woods towards the campsite. 

On the way to their campsite, they heard the faint sounds of a fire crackling, and ducked down behind nearby bushes to avoid being seen. "Shit," Johnny hissed, "shouldn't they be up at the official campgrounds?"   
Scarlet whispered in reply, "Must be an adventurous bunch."   
The two vampire teens poked their heads ever so slightly above a bush and looked at the family who was the source of the fire: a petite, very sweet looking woman, her husband, and their daughter, a little girl with dark brown hair. They chatted amongst themselves contentedly, before the father started telling a scary story. The two women in the family leaned in closer to listen to the man's tale, and the two vampires got distracted as well, until Johnny dropped one of his sticks. The little girl turned immediately toward the source of the sound, and gasped, "Mom, I just heard something over there!"   
The two vampires quickly panicked and ran from the bushes. Scarlet remembered to crouch down to avoid detection, but Johnny bolted upright and began running, giving the young girl a glimpse of his tall frame, dark hair, pale skin, and black leather jacket. As they ran, they could faintly hear the girl telling her parents that she saw someone in the bushes, while her father insisted that it was just his story getting to her and that she should rest. 

They didn't stop running until they approached their van, constantly looking over their shoulders to make sure that man wasn't going to investigate the little girl's claims. Only when they came to a full stop did Scarlet turn to Johnny and say, "Way to go, nosebleed. That kid saw you, you know."   
"Oh, she'll be fine," he shrugged in reply, "not like she'll remember me or anything."   
"Alright, you two," Clifford chuckled, "let's set up this firewood and get something going here." He soon pulled out a match and set the pile of wood ablaze, making sure that there was only enough wood in the pile at a time to create a small flame to avoid detection by anyone who might be looking to toss them out of the campground. 

As the fire slowly burned, the vampires all sat in a circle, chatting about whatever came to mind while minding their volume to avoid any unnecessary confrontation with others. They talked about cars, music, movies, what they were going to do for the rest of this trip, and school.   
"Be careful, guys," said Giovanni, "if you say Miss B's name too much, she'll appear and tear your guts out just like Bloody Mary!"   
This got a laugh out of everyone, some of whom jokingly began chanting, "Miss Behave, Miss Behave, Miss Behave!" while pretending to summon a demon.   
"Oh stop it, this talk is too horrifying for my little heart!" Scarlet mockingly cried out while faking a swoon.   
Rudy began to shake his knees and pretend to bite his nails, and said, "Come on guys, I thought we would wait until tomorrow night for scary stories! This is way too intense!" 

The group of teenage vampires laughed and talked in this fashion all through the night, just like any other, until the stars began to fade and their campfire began to die, at which point the vampires all split off and crawled into their tents before wishing each other to sleep well.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, in the last chapter I briefly mentioned my lovely friend blossomgutz's OC Ida, now in this one I'm giving her some spotlight!

After a long day of rest, the vampires each crawled out of their tents and were ready to begin a new night of adventure. 

 Clifford was smart enough to figure out a way to store blood in bottles for the duration of the trip. Even though they only really needed to feed about once a week, it was good to have handy in case of emergency. Scarlet grabbed a bottle of blood and took a big swig from it shortly after helping Lola pull her hair up into a slick ponytail; since the young vampires couldn't see their own reflections in mirrors, they relied on their own instincts as well as one another to determine what they looked like. When she was done assisting her friend with her hair, she turned to her friends and announced, "Hey, last night I found a really quaint little beach! There might still be some humans there, but if we wait a few hours we'll have the whole place to ourselves."  
The others couldn't help but grin at one another, and Cass piped in, "Let's tell scary stories to pass some time!"   
Rudy immediately turned to his friend and said, "Man, we're vampires. What the hell is gonna scare us?"   
Cass shrugged his shoulders and confidently responded, "That's easy. Sunny days, garlic, our motorcycles breaking down, Miss Behave, the list goes on and on." After a short pause and a was-that-necessary glare from Rudy, he chuckled out, "Hey, I never said they had to be about monsters."   
"Alright, I've got one," Giovanni started, "how many of you have heard the legend of the Ghost of the Universal Palace Theater?"   
A series of groans and laughs filled the campsite, as Clifford laughed, "Gio, we all love you, but we said we wanted to tell scary stories, not just made up tales to discourage kids from playing in abandoned buildings."   
"Yeah, but this one is true!" insisted Giovanni. "Just ask Joey Miller, he'll tell you! That's where he got that scar on his temple! And Susie Hanson was there too, she saw the whole thing."   
A debate ensued about the aforementioned Joey's clumsiness as well as the legitimacy of his claims, some arguing that if vampires could exist who was to say that ghosts couldn't, others saying that Joey probably had another one of his famous nightmares he gets whenever he passes out drunk at a party. 

"Then explain what Susie saw!" shouted Giovanni.   
"Well, gee whilikers, that would be easier if we know what it was she saw!" Clifford argued.   
"Ask her, she's got a better memory than me!" Giovanni replied with an indignance in his voice.   
"A-ha! Unreliable narrator here!" cried out Scarlet.   
"Geez Louise, it has been at least an hour! Can we please talk about something else? If it really means that much to you guys we'll go check out the place ourselves when we get back!" said Cass, who at this point just wanted to go to the beach for the first time in at least 2 years. "Let's just go to the beach, coast should be clear by now," he huffed.  
Rudy nodded and suggested, "Yeah, we should all probably put on our bathing suits and head out, the water hopefully won't be too cold." 

So the vampires quickly ran back into their tents one at a time, so not to infringe on anyone else's privacy, and got ready to go to the beach. Lola backed some bottles of blood in a small box to take to the beach, and Johnny grabbed his guitar. He wasn't very fond of water, and especially wasn't fond of the idea of messing up his hair, so he just wore his favorite blue jeans and a black t-shirt. Scarlet excitedly lead the way to the small beach, sneaking through the woods and treading a small path through the dirt until they reached the sandy shore of the lake. With an overly dramatic sweeping gesture, Scarlet beamed, "Well, here it is! What do you think? Just as cool as I told you, huh?" 

The young vampires looked out on the scene before them. The beach was completely empty, and under the moonlight and continuously darkening blue of the sky the sand looked a pale blue, and the water nearly appeared black. The woods around were nearly silent, save for the sounds of a few birds crying out and frogs croaking. It was almost divinely peaceful, almost like a dream. 

And then, just like that, Clifford broke the silence by shouting "Last one in the water's a   
rotten egg!" and charging ahead of the group, his pink hair falling into his face as he ran. Giovanni quickly followed, playfully nudging Scarlet out of the way to get to the water first. Then came Rudy and Cass, running side by side, since neither was fast enough to pass the other up. Lola elected not to run, since she had a box full of very easily broken glass bottles in her arms. Johnny went and sat down on the sand, shouting back, "Don't mind me, I'll just hang out here in Rotten Eggs-ville."   
"Aw, come on, Johnny!" shouted Giovanni to his older brother. "What, you scared of the water or something? Not like there are any sharks in here!"   
Johnny, with a roll of his eyes at his overly eager brother, said, "No, really, I'm cool here." He began to tune his guitar, since it had been a while since he last played for his friends.

Meanwhile, in the lake, Clifford and Giovanni were in the middle of an all-out water war, splashing one another and attempting to dunk each other in the water. Since vampires could hold their breath for much longer than a human, no one felt any reason to be alarmed. Lola and Rudy couldn't help but laugh as they watched their two friends wrestle one another in the water, until Scarlet came up behind them both and jumped up in the water, attempting to drag them both down with her when gravity pulled her back down.   
"Oh, dolly, I know you did not just go there, " laughed out Rudy.   
"Chickadee, you're going down!" Lola exclaimed playfully.   
"Come on, snakes! Let's rattle!" Scarlet shouted, eager to join in on all the fun.   
And thus, the other three vampires initiated their own little scrap, before Clifford took notice and splashed Lola in the face, dragging her into his battle. At that point, it went from a disorganized team battle to an every man for himself splashing fight. Even Cass, who was more or less just trying to swim, got dragged into it. 

Johnny watched the scene from the shore, internally lamenting that he didn't have a camera on him, until he faintly detected rustling from the woods behind him. "Hm?" he mumbled, turning around, not noticing his friends begin to march out of the water. "Hey, guys," he turned back and said, "I think we have company."   
"Please don't be cops," thought Scarlet, "Or park rangers. Or paranormal investigators."

The vampires, though dripping wet and wearing only towels over their bathing suits, each prepared themselves for a fight, when out of the bushes came a small girl in a pair of pink pyjamas. "Hey, hey! Calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you or nothin'," the girl said in a small voice. "I just...heard you guys out here havin' fun, and I wanted to see what all the racket was."   
Johnny and Scarlet both looked at one another, each instantly recognizing her as the little girl from the human campsite. 

Johnny approached the girl slowly, doing his best to keep from bearing his fangs, and stooped down to reach her eye level, before softly saying, "You lost, sweetheart? You should be somewhere safe with your parents right now, not running around the woods at night. You could get attacked by bears," he paused, and sardonically began to add, "or maybe even by-"   
"Me?" the girl said. "I'm not lost, I'm just trying to have an adventure! Say, are you guys greasers or something?" At this point, she was eyeing Clifford's discarded leather jacket.   
Johnny piped in, "Don't you worry about that, young lady. I'm not exactly sure I like the idea of you running around at night, so maybe I should walk you back to your-"   
Again, the girl interrupted him, "My name's Ida, what are your names?" she asked, looking over Johnny's shoulder at all the other teens.   
They all went around and cautiously introduced themselves to Ida, some of them hesitating out of fear that her parents won't be pleased with them interacting with their daughter. 

"Those are really awesome names!" Ida beamed, then asking, "Say, can I hang out with you for the night? I've always wanted to hang out with teenagers, especially greasers!"  
Lola, keeping her eye on the blood bottles and figuring out a way to discreetly move them out of the child's sight so she wouldn't investigate them, said, "Give us just a minute, Ida, we need to talk amongst ourselves really quickly." Ida nodded, plopping down onto the sand and looking up with admiration at the cool teenagers huddling up in front of her. 

"Okay, what do we do?" asked Lola, "We can't just let her hang out with us, can we? She's like ten years old!"   
Clifford piped in, "Okay, guys, hear me out. Let's scare the hell out of her. One of us pretend not to be a vampire, and then we'll attack whoever it is and pretend to feed on them! She'll be running for her life before you can say-"   
"Cliff, have you lost your mind?" Rudy interrupted. "We cannot, under any circumstances, let her see that we're vampires. By god, if she tells her parents, or worse, the cops, there'll be a huge witch hunt for us!"   
Johnny calmly suggested, "Okay, I think we should let her hang out with us."   
Cass, looking flabbergasted, asked, "What? Why would we do that? We aren't babysitters!"   
"Listen, let's try to tire her out, not like we don't have the stamina for it." Johnny replied. "She'll probably be out by eleven, then we can take her back to her campsite and tell her folks we found her wandering around or something. Not like she'll ever see us again, she could live in Seattle for all we know!"   
"You know what?" Lola piped in, "That could actually work! Could be fun, too."  
After a brief period of everyone looking at one another for confirmation, the huddle broke and Lola said, "Okay, Ida. You can hang out with us, but on one condition. Don't tell a soul you met us, because if you get in trouble, we could get in trouble, and we aren't exactly looking for that tonight, got it?"   
"Got it! Deal! My lips are sealed!" Ida nodded, beaming. "Oh man, this is so cool! I get to hang out with a bunch of greasers at one of their greaser parties! This has to be the best day of my life!" She began to jump up and down with joy, then added, "So, what do you guys do at parties?"


	5. Chapter 5

"So, what do you guys do at parties?"   
If there were ever a question capable of stopping six immortals in their tracks, it was this. 

Ida looked at them expectantly, a huge smile still planted on her face.  
“Wait! I know! You dance and do greaser stuff! ‘Cause most of you are greasers!”  
Johnny and Clifford turned to look at one another with anxious looks on their faces, before turning back to the young girl in front of them. Before Clifford even had the chance to tell the girl they didn’t know what she meant by ‘greaser stuff’, Johnny interjected, “Yep, caught us red-handed! How’d you know? You some sort of psychic or something, young lady?”   
“Nope! I just have a lot of experience from watching the local greasers from my bedroom window. If my mom saw me running outside to see them, she would get frightened and pull me back inside and babble on about ‘how greasers are dangerous’ and yack yack yack.”

Scarlet’s eyes widened with a mix of confusion and the smallest amount of fear at the girl’s discussion of her fanatical love of greasers, and she swiftly looked over at Giovanni, as if silently asking for confirmation of what she just heard. Then, she was pulled to the side by Lola, who said loudly enough to make sure Ida heard her, “Hey sweetie, come over here a minute, I gotta ask you about that drag of a book report Miss B assigned us.”   
“Wait, we have a book report-” Scarlet started, before immediately realizing what Lola was trying to do. “Oh, yeah, that old thing, we should probably at least start reading it!”   
Lola pulled Scarlet in closer so they could whisper to one another, and she leaned in and said, “Okay, I don’t know about you but this definitely seems like a bad idea to let this kid hang with us. She admitted to gawking at the local greasers wherever she’s from, maybe we should be worried for the guys?”   
“Well,” Scarlet began, “we are vampires, not like we can’t handle a little girl. So what if she gets a little crush on one of the guys, or all of the guys even?” She giggled to herself at this prospect, it was almost kind of cute to her that this small, innocent looking child had such a fascination with arguably the biggest troublemakers out there. “Only way she can hurt us is if she’s strong enough to stake all six of us. Just cool it, it’ll work out.” Scarlet turned around to see what was going on with the rest of the group, and there was young Ida, rocking heel to toe while talking to the much taller Clifford, who was slightly crouched down to meet her level. “Come on Lo, let’s get back over there, they might think we’re gossiping about them or something if we stay any longer.”  
Lola nodded, and began to walk back arm in arm with Scarlet.   
As they got closer within earshot of the group, Lola turned back to Scarlet and said “So, library on Wednesday at six? I’ll be there, it’ll take way less time if we work together,” before shooting her friend a subtle wink. 

When everyone finally reached the campsite, Ida ran ahead and slowly spun around to inspect the whole area, almost as if she were in some kind of movie. “Wow… This is so cool!” And without warning, she gasped and ran into one of the tents.   
Forgetting that the whole goal of the night was to keep the child from learning of the existence of vampires, Rudy immediately rushed at her with a bit of his unnatural speed and swiftly picked her up and out of the tent. “Hey, hey, young lady! It’s not nice to go through other people’s things, you know!”   
The other teenage vampires looked at each other in fear that in the split seconds Ida had in the tent that she may have seen something compromising, such as a bottle of blood or the large amount of opaque sheets lining the walls and ceiling. Ida, however, had completely forgotten about whatever she had noticed in the tent, as she did not have enough time to look around and her mind was too occupied by the fact that she was now currently in the arms of a rather handsome teenaged greaser. “Woah…” she mumbled aloud, looking up at the pale face of the young man carrying her. 

Rudy quickly put Ida down, but kept his hands on her shoulders and crouched to her level to make sure she didn’t try to go back in there. “Hey, sweetheart, you can’t just go into other people’s stuff without asking first. What if there had been a knife in there and you had fallen? You could’ve gotten really hurt.”   
“A knife? Woah, are you the kind of tough greasers that get into fights with other gangs and use knives?” Ida asked, her face lighting up with excitement.   
Rudy looked over Ida at the other vampires, who were all shaking their heads and making gestures to indicate to him to tell her no, in case she were to end up telling her parents about this. However, Rudy found that he wanted to be seen as cool, even if just by a child. “Well,” he smirked, “that’s for us to know, and for you to find out.” 

Cass and Johnny both smacked their heads with the palms of their hands, and Scarlet shook her head in disappointment at her friend. Great, she thought, now we’re definitely gonna get in trouble for this.   
“That is so cool!” Ida squealed with delight. “Oh, and, uh, sorry about barging into the tent. I found a photo of what I think is from some sort of dance?”

What the young girl had found was a picture of Clifford and Lola from the 1920s, just before they had become vampires. Lola’s hair was cropped short and she wore a knee-length, fringed dress, and Clifford wore a dark suit, his hair a much darker, more natural looking color.   
“Yeah, I remember this!” Giovanni exclaimed with his most convincing fake smile. “This was from when we put on The Great Gatsby as a play! You were uh… what was his name? John or Rick or somethin’, the guy who isn’t Gatsby, and uh, Lola, you were a really good Daisy!”   
Scarlet chimed in, “I remember that too! We all went out after opening night to celebrate,” taking a moment to think of how to make this completely made up story sound real, “and we got lost on the way home! Good times, right?” The rest of the group began to laugh and agree, and Clifford and Lola looked at one another and breathed a sigh of relief. 

“You got any more photos? I like looking at photographs!” Ida grinned, removing her eyes from the picture. Once again, she enters one of the tents, exiting with a bunch of pictures.

Cass held Rudy back from going into the tent to retrieve the child, whatever she found could easily be concealed in another story.   
“Look at all of these! There must be a hundred of them!” Ida scanned through the pictures, stopping on one photo of a girl. “Who’s she? She looks like the popular type.”  
Scarlet immediately ran over to the young girl and looked at the photo in hand. It was Donna, with her thousand watt smile and eyes that still shined even with no indication of their sky-blue hue. “Oh,” she said, “That’s my… best friend, Donna. She couldn’t come here with us, she’s out of town with her family. She was on the homecoming court last year, and I think this year she’s a shoo-in for homecoming queen!” Scarlet tried to hide her enthusiasm and overall love for the girl in the photograph. 

“She’s pretty! And who’s the girl next to her?” Ida asked, beaming up at the dark-haired teen beside her.  
“That’s Krystal. She’s a cheerleader, like me. She’s nice when you get to know her,” Scarlet leaned in for dramatic effect, “but really only when you get to know her, does she start being nice.”   
A few of the guys giggled at Scarlet’s comment, because they knew it to be true, but they’d never be the ones to say it. Krystal may have appeared to be a dainty young lady, but that was far from the truth. 

Ida stared at the photo for a while before stating “She looks like the kind of popular girl who is worshipped by the whole school.”  
“Well,” Lola said, rolling her eyes a bit, “that’s because she is.” She elected to refrain from saying what she really thought of Krystal in front of the child, and since she knew Scarlet relatively liked her.   
“She must be the leader of a group or something! A... “ Ida thought for a moment, trying to remember the word. “A clique!”  
Clifford stifled a laugh as Scarlet appeared to almost go red in the face at the idea that the group she was in was a clique. Her eyes widened and her lips were pulled back and downward in a slightly alarmed frown.   
“Did I say something wrong? I was talking about a cool clique! I promise! Or maybe clique was the wrong word?”   
“Hah, no it wasn’t,” Lola muttered under her breath, as Giovanni tried to keep his smirk at his friend’s snide comment.   
“No, sweetie, it’s alright,” Scarlet said, attempting her best to reassure the young girl, “It’s just that normally the word ‘clique’ isn’t often used at our school, that’s all.”  
“Oh.” Ida went through some more pictures and stopped at a class picture. “Is this your class?”   
Giovanni leaned over this time to look, before adding, “Yeah, would you look at that! It is! Hey, Scar, I didn’t know you had this!” The other vampires all swiftly gathered around to look at the picture, pointing themselves out and giggling, occasionally making jokes.   
“Hey, Johnny, remember before you grew out your hair? What was with that whole trooper thing you had going?” Cass nudged his friend jokingly.  
“Could always be worse, I could look like you!” Johnny responded before sticking out his tongue at his companion.  
“Oh man, that reminds me, I lost that jacket!” Clifford cried out in shock upon looking at the leather jacket he was wearing in the picture, before asking his sister, “Hey Lola, you ever find it?” Lola shook her head in response.   
“Aw.” Ida frowned. “You’ll find it someday.” And out of the blue, she changed the subject. “The teacher looks nice. I bet she gives out cookies!”

And at this point, the vampires began laughing harder than they had in a long time. Amid gasps for air and attempts to hide their fangs with their hands, eventually Rudy cried out, “Cookies? She wouldn’t give out cookies if the world was ending, dolly! She gives out detention slips, that’s for sure!”   
“Oh man,” Clifford cackled, “I can hear her now! ‘Where’s your hall pass, young man?’,” he began in a high-pitched, nasal voice, “‘I’ll report you for the principal for this!’”  
Soon, Giovanni joined in, in a similar tone, “‘This is not an assignment you can simply do the night before!’ Sure it isn’t, and the sun comes out at nighttime!”   
Johnny leaned into Ida, and, wiping a tear from his face from laughing so hard, said “Cherish your youth while you have it, because once you get to be our age you get teachers like her.” 

“I will! I promise! I’ll try to stay young forever!”  
Johnny patted her on the back and said, “Yeah, you do that, kiddo.”   
Ida then got to a photo different from the others. It was of a homecoming parade dating back to September 16 of last year. The homecoming court rode on a magnificent float adorned with a large, lit-up sun and false green grass, and the marching band could be seen just up ahead, playing what she could only imagine to be a triumphant tune as dozens of students, teachers, and parents looked on. However, her eyes were drawn to something else in the background: what appeared to be several shadowy, obscured figures, each with a pair of glowing eyes. Ida wasn’t paying attention to the shadows, though, but to the familiar face of Krystal looking back, smiling. Then she put two and two together.

She was silent for what seemed like a minute, before softly whispering, “You… That’s...you…” She looked up at them, with eyes wide and filled with shock.  
And once again, six immortals were stopped dead in their tracks. This girl, she just figured out the most dangerous secret humanity could ever learn, and now they had to make a choice. They were no strangers to bloodshed, no strangers to murder, but could they bring themselves to kill a small child? Here was a little girl, who only wanted to befriend a group of cool teenagers, was death really to be her reward? She could very well be the person that condemns them, the one that reveals the truth to all of humanity and begins the inevitable war between their species, but could they really bring themselves to hurt a sweet little girl? 

Before they could think, Clifford looked up and noticed the sky begin to lighten. He gasped audibly, and the other vampires looked up too. Now, there was no time to decide.   
“Okay, yeah, you caught us, kid,” Johnny began, “so you know what’ll happen to us if the sun comes up, right?” Ida nodded, with a hint of a smile on her face. “We need to go inside, and now that I think about it, you need to go home before your folks wake up, if they haven’t already. Can I have the pictures back?” Johnny did his best to give the girl a friendly smile, now unafraid to bare his fangs.   
Ida quickly nodded, and handed them back, saying, “So, like, you guys drink blood, right?” with a smile on her face far too large for any young child asking that sort of question.  
“Yes, yes, we do. Now listen, Ida, we need you to keep this a big secret for us, okay? Most humans probably wouldn’t be too pleased about the existence of….us.” Johnny said, shifting his eyes around, not wanting to directly use ‘the v word’ just yet.   
“Yeah, of course I will,” Ida exclaimed, excitedly, “as long as I get to hang out with you guys tomorrow night!”   
Johnny sighed, and quickly said, “Sure, why not? Now get going, Ida, we wouldn’t want you to get into any trouble.” Before he could even finish his sentence, Ida was bounding away to her camp. 

 

Johnny quickly joined Clifford in his tent, and zipped up the door of it.  
“You don’t think she’s gonna tell anyone, do you?” Clifford asked, curling up in his sleeping bag.  
Johnny, still sitting up, responded with a smile, “Nah. Besides, not like they’re gonna believe her.”


	6. Chapter 6

The sun set over the California woods, painting the sky with an array of pinks, purples, and oranges before transitioning into a dark blue. As the sky darkened, Lola was the first to emerge from her tent, with Scarlet and Clifford soon following. Johnny woke up next, and it took about ten more minutes to wake his brother, along with Rudy and Cass. 

With the events of the past night in mind, and a determination to have this camping trip be unfettered, Clifford quickly exclaimed, "Okay, guys, let's get a move on so we can pick up and move the campsite before that human kid finds u-"   
"Man, have you lost it?" Johnny interjected, with a look of concern in his eyes, "She said she wouldn't tell anyone about us as long as we let her hang out with us tonight! Do you really think for a second that this girl won't rat us out?"   
Clifford paused, taking this into consideration. "Okay, even if she does, who are people gonna believe? A ten year-old girl who seems to have some issues, or a couple of young adults who, let's be honest, absolutely no one would put it past to trick some kid into thinking they were vampires? Hell, if anyone says anything, we could even tell them we were joking! Let's burn the picture from the parade, not like we'll ever forget that!" He suggested, his voice slightly raised in frustration.   
"I don't know about that," Scarlet said warily, "I heard something on the radio the other day about the police investigating a string of deaths that sound pretty similar to, well, vampire attacks." She walked to the center of the semicircle formed by her friends, and continued, "Guys, people are starting to get suspicious. More and more homeless folks going missing off the streets, people being found with our bite marks on their necks, the humans around here are actually getting scared now. I think we all know what humans do when they get scared. Look, I know we didn't travel all the way out here to babysit someone's daughter, but for the sake of protecting ourselves I think we ought to just play along for one more night. After that, we tell the girl it's our last night camping here, and we pick up and move. Would anyone have a problem with that?" 

The silence lingered for about a minute, and with a sigh, Rudy conceded, "Yeah, I guess. I mean, she isn't that bad."   
With that, it was settled. They, like most teenagers, couldn't say they exactly adored kids, or like most vampires, couldn't say they adored many humans in general, but they decided that they were gonna give Ida the time of her life before they disappeared into the shadows. 

While they waited for their young companion to arrive, Clifford took notice of the lack of firewood they had around, and said, "Hey, anyone wanna go run and get some wood for the fire again? We could use some more, especially since we're gonna have the human girl with us again. She probably can't see that well in the dark."  
Rudy, being one of the larger guys in the group and able to carry more wood, volunteered himself for the task. Cass immediately offered to join, and the two ventured off into the woods. 

The forest was dark and foreboding; clouds began to cover the moon, leaving minimal light, and the towering tops of the trees blocked out most of what was left. Rudy and Cass walked on, forging a path through the dirt and layers of mostly rotted leaves from autumns before.  
"Geez," Cass joked, "this almost seems like a scene out of a horror movie, huh, Rudy? Almost like the Wolfman's gonna come get us or some-" he cut himself off when he turned around to find his friend gone. "Rudy?" he called out. He heard no response. As far as he was concerned, he was completely alone. Cass may have been a vampire, but being all alone when he was not just a few seconds beforehand, in an unfamiliar forest far away from the campsite, was enough to scare the hell out of him. "Rudy?" he shouted louder, "Come on man, where are you? This kind of shit ain't funny, I'm not playing around here!" Still, he heard no response. He looked around, he saw no wildlife, only the dense darkness of the woods around him, and all he could hear was the sound of his own panicked breath, and the distant hooting of an owl. 

Suddenly, something pounced on him from behind, emitting a near inhuman howl. Cass fell to the ground immediately, and began struggling to turn around to at least see his attacker. With a swift backward movement of his elbow, he was able to throw the beast off him, when instead of hearing a pained yelp or growl, he heard a very familiar "Oof!"   
He turned around, and there was Rudy, laughing like a madman, "Oh man," he said between fits of giggling, "You should have seen your face!"   
"Rudy, Jesus, brother! I thought you were dead or somethin'! I thought-" Cass began, angry but relieved.  
"You thought the Wolfman got me?" Rudy asked, with a shit-eating grin. "Awooooo!" he jokingly howled, before pulling in his friend by the shoulders to mess up his hair.   
"Okay, okay, cut it out, man." Cass chuckled, relieved that he was alright. "Let's go get some firewood."  
"Sounds like a plan to me," Rudy smiled, and the two went on their way. 

Shortly after, Cass and Rudy came back to the campsite, carrying loads of firewood in their arms. Ida had already arrived, and brought a small picnic for herself and the vampires.  
"Oh hey, you're back!" the little brunette exclaimed. "We were getting worried, it's a good thing you're okay!"   
After setting down the firewood, Rudy smiled at the child and said, "Well hey, no need to worry about us," he got closer to the girl, then shifted his eyes back and forth in an exaggerated manner, "Unless a werewolf shows up."   
Ida laughed, and then she paused for a second. "Hang on," she speculated, her eyes going wide, "Werewolves exist too?"   
Rudy panicked a bit, realizing that neither he nor any of his friends have ever actually seen a werewolf in the flesh, or heard of one. Maybe they weren't real after all, or maybe they stayed away from California. He wouldn't blame them, he thought to himself, it would be pretty hard to hide yourself as a werewolf if you lived in Hollywood, or San Francisco, or really any big city in California. "Well, if they do, they sure aren't anywhere around here." Rudy said, "Don't worry, kid, you're safe from them."   
"Aw, shucks," Ida said forlornly, "so no werewolves? That's okay! I like vampires more anyway!" She beamed, going back to her original perky self. "I brought you guys some snacks, by the way!"  
Ida went over to her basket, and pulled out some cookies. "I don't know if you guys eat food or not, but my family and I are leaving tomorrow morning and I didn't want the to go to waste, they're chocolate chip!"   
"Chocolate chip?" Clifford asked, excitedly, "Ah, sweetie, you didn't have to do that!"  
"Well," Ida said, "I was thinking we could have a picnic tonight! It'll be fun, and you guys could tell me some cool vampire stories!"   
Lola smiled warmly at the child, and said, "Why don't you set up the picnic, then, and I'll put some wood in our little fire pit and strike a match." She then went over to the fire, and began hauling the logs found by Rudy and Cass over her shoulder. Ida pulled out a blue and white picnic blanket, and began spreading it out on the grass of the clearing. She gestured excitedly for the vampires to come sit with her, and they all did. Soon enough, the fire blazed, and the stories began. 

"So," Giovanni asked the young girl, "anything in particular you wanna know about?"   
"Yeah! Yeah!" Ida exclaimed. "How do you guys drink blood? Do you like, kill people and stuff? Is it like in the movies where the girls swoon when they're bitten? How does it work?"   
Most of the vampires were taken aback by the girl's enthusiastic inquiries into their bloodthirst. Lots of "Um, well"s and "Er, you see"s were mumbled out, the vampires finding it hard to look the little girl in the eye. Eventually, Johnny took the lead and said, "It's kinda like eating this cookie, but like, after you hunted the cookie. Does your daddy hunt, Ida?"   
She shook her head, "No," she said, "My daddy likes animals. He thinks it's wrong for guys to go out and kill poor defenseless animals just for fun, unless you plan on eating 'em later or something."   
"Well, that's alright, but do you get what I mean?" Johnny asked, trying not to get into detail for the child's sake.   
"Yeah, it's like hunting for cookies!" Ida enthusiastically paraphrased.   
"Atta girl!" Johnny said.   
"You guys drink anybody's blood while you're here?" She asked.  
"No, we put it in some bottles before we came. Kind of like soda pop, but, well, not." Johnny   
said. "Hey, Ida, you're already keeping one secret for us, think you can keep another?"   
She nodded quickly and said, "Sure! What's up?"   
Johnny looked at the others, sighed softly, and said, "Ida, we're in a bit of trouble right now. You see, blood isn't easy to find, and let's just say that we've...done some things to some people. Well, now we gotta keep a low profile, because people are starting to disappear, if you're catching my drift, and local policemen and news anchors aren't happy."   
"Woah! Are you guys gonna go on the run?" Ida asked.   
"No!" Johnny, Giovanni, Scarlet, and Clifford all exclaimed at once. Ida jumped back a bit at the unexpected zeal of the response. 

"So.... uh," Ida began, a bit nervously, "I saw the picture of that parade. Would you guys be mad if I asked what exactly happened there?"   
"Boy, am I glad you a-" Clifford gushed, proud of his gang's accomplishment, before abruptly being cut off by Scarlet's petite hand covering his mouth.   
"Hold your horses there, Cliff," Scarlet said. "Now Ida," she warned, "I need you to make a very big promise for me. I know you can keep a secret really well, so do you think you can keep this one?"   
Ida nodded, and professed, "Yeah, of course I can! I won't tell anyone, not a soul!"   
"Great!" Scarlett cheered, and removed her hand from Clifford's mouth, leaning in and reminding him, "Spare her the gruesome parts, alright?" 

A grin spread across Clifford's face, as he began to elaborate the tale of the attack the vampires made on the homecoming parade. He absolutely beamed as he told the young girl of how they plotted it, and convinced the scorned homecoming queen Krystal to help let them in, in exchange for exacting her revenge on the members of Hollywood High's elite who wronged her, and of course her survival. Of course, he did his best to avoid mentioning what all they actually did to their classmates, to prevent the little girl from having nightmares, but he couldn't help but let a hint or two slip out, after all, he never actually got to tell anyone outside of his little gang about that night before. Ida listened intently, leaning in closer to hear during more intense parts of Clifford's tale like she was listening to a spooky campfire story, except this one was real. By the end of Clifford's story, Ida was flabbergasted that the seven vampires before her had committed such an act. 

"Well, damn!" Ida said aloud, immediately covering her mouth after letting out a curse.  
All seven stopped dead in their tracks. It was dead silent, until Giovanni doubled over, howling with laughter. Clifford could hardly breathe at a swear word coming from Ida's tiny voice, and Lola's jaw hung wide open at the girl's audacity.   
"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry!" Ida lamented, cheeks burning red.   
"Nah, kid, it's alright by us. Just don't say it around your folks, okay?" comforted Johnny. 

"Okay," Ida meekly whispered, before letting out a huge yawn. "Boy," she murmured, "anyone know what time it is? It can't be that late, can it?"   
Johnny, realizing his watch was in his tent, quickly went into it and checked it. "It's only like 3 AM, Ida, but it wouldn't surprise me if you were tired," he observed, "you stayed up nearly all night with us last night, and you and your folks were probably busy. Hate to say it, but do you want to go to bed? We won't get angry if you do, humans are supposed to sleep at night, we get it."  
"You sure?" Ida reluctantly replied, "I don't wanna leave you guys though, you're cool! You're vampire greasers, it doesn't get any cooler than that! Oh, but I'm really starting to get sleepy, I wish I could stay up with you guys!"   
Scarlet piped in, "Ida, you're a kid. A human kid. Human kids need sleep, nothing wrong with that. Do you want Johnny and I to walk with you back to your campsite? We wouldn't want you to get lost in the woods, and since it's still nighttime we can get away with it without the sun coming out and, uh, you know."   
"You guys would do that for me? Really?" Ida squealed. "That would be awesome!"   
"Well, let's get a move on then, you're tired and we don't wanna keep you up," said Johnny, putting the plate of cookies back in Ida's picnic basket as Scarlet helped fold the picnic blanket after the others got off of it.   
"Wait, don't you guys want some of the cookies?" Ida asked.  
Giovanni said, "I don't know if we can even eat human food, but hey, if you're offering," and he reached out and took a few into his hands.   
"You ready to go, kiddo?" Johnny asked, picking up the picnic basket.   
"Wait!" the young girl exclaimed, before running over to each vampire and giving them hugs. "You guys are the coolest, I'll never forget you!"   
As the three walked into the woods, a chorus of goodbyes trailed from the camp.   
"I'll actually kind of miss that kid," said Rudy, leaning into Cass.   
"Yeah, me too," Cass replied. 

Johnny and Scarlet did their best to keep the very tired Ida from falling asleep on the trip, and for the first time she started to notice the fact that their eyes seemed to glow with a slight red.   
"Woah," she mumbled, "that's really cool. Do your eyes always glow in the dark?"   
"Yeah," Scarlet replied, "I think it has something to do with the fact that we see so well at night."  
"I mean, I know animals have a cool shiny part in their eyeballs which is why cats' eyes glow in the dark, maybe we have that," remarked Johnny with a smirk.   
"Well, I don't wanna cut anyone's eye up to find out," laughed Scarlet.   
As the trio walked through the woods, Ida let out another yawn then looked up at Scarlet, thinking to herself about how this girl was everything she wanted to be. Scarlet was cool, nice, pretty, and a vampire, too! One day, she told herself, I'll be just like her.   
They approached Ida's campsite and she looked up one last time at her newfound friends, and asked them, "Hey, are you guys gonna come back next year? I wanna see you guys again!"   
The two vampires looked at one another, and Johnny shrugged, "I mean, we'll try. This has been pretty fun, I think we're gonna make this our yearly thing."   
Scarlet and Ida said in unison, "Wow! Really?" before both burstng into a small fit of giggles.   
"Yeah, really," Johnny replied, with a smile on his face. "Come on, Scar, we'd better get going."   
"Yeah, hang on a second," Scarlet said, before crouching down a bit and extending her arms for a hug. Ida nearly ran into them, and wrapped her arms tightly around Scarlet's shoulders.   
"I'll miss you, Scarlet," she said, "I hope I can be like you one day."   
"I'm sure you will be, Ida," she replied, "you're one cool chick. I'll see you again someday, okay?"   
"Yeah, okay," Ida said, before breaking out of the hug and going to Johnny.   
Johnny hugged her tightly, picking her up and spinning her around, causing her to laugh. "Hey, take care of yourself, okay, kid?" Johnny said, smiling at the young girl.  
"You bet, Johnny." she replied. "Hey, can I join your gang one day?" she asked.   
After a brief hesitation, Johnny smiled and said, "Sure thing, Ida. You'll know where to find us."   
Ida smiled one last time at the vampires, and tiredly sauntered off to her tent, but not before waving goodbye. She turned to go into her tent, but turned around one last time, and they were gone. 

When the two vampires walked back to their campsite, Johnny smiled and said to Scarlet, "She's a good kid."   
"Yeah, you can say that again." replied Scarlet, "She reminds me a bit of my sister, back when we were younger. Now she's in the seventh grade, and all she cares about are older boys with cars." With a sigh, she said, "Let's just hope little Ida stays the same."   
"Yeah," Johnny said, "we can only hope."


	7. Chapter 7

After two more summer nights filled with laughter, guitars, Rudy getting attacked by a goose, and the others promising not to ever mention the latter event again (when he's not around) the coven of immortal youths determined that it would soon be time to pack up and go back home to their beloved Hollywood. They even agreed to go to bed just a bit before sunrise so they could get as much of an early start as they could without stepping out into the sun's deadly rays. But surely the twilight grew darker, and after packing up most of their personal belongings the vampires began to dissemble their tents; except for, it seemed, Clifford and Johnny. 

Then, their tent collapsed around them as Johnny quickly snapped, "I told you this was a bad idea, but did you listen to me? 'Noooo, dissembling the tent from the inside will save us more time!' And now look!"   
Clifford, meanwhile, was too busy laughing as he thrashed around, trying to escape the canvas prison he and his companion found themselves trapped in. 

Lola quickly ran over, since her and Scarlet's tent was already put away in its bag, and began to help pull the fabric away from her brother, stifling laughter as she did so. Scarlet, on the other hand, was too busy laughing at her friends to help. When they finally got the tent off of them, Johnny and Clifford were greeted by their friends' sarcastic applause and snickering at Clifford's "brilliant" idea. 

"Hey, it could've worked," Clifford said, looking oddly disappointed in himself.  
"Sure, Cliff," Giovanni said with a sarcastically sugar-coated voice, "Sure." 

The bottles of blood they still had left were put in the back of the van, and the empty ones, at Lola's advice, were taken with them as well to avoid anyone figuring out what was in them. They were then concealed by the portable bags the tents came in, extra blankets, and finally the individual teens' possessions. 

As they began loading into the van, Scarlet seemed hesitant, and let out a sigh. Clifford took notice of that, and approached her.   
"Hey, are you alright?" he asked.  
"Yeah, I guess, I just can't believe it's already time to go." Scarlet muttered, looking down at the ground.   
"Well, not like it won't be here next year. This was pretty fun," he said, leaning into his friend, "at least until that goose showed up."  
Scarlet giggled, covering up her fanged mouth with her hand, before fully realizing what he just said. "Wait, so we're gonna do this again?" she beamed.   
"Yeah we are! And besides, isn't there a certain lady who ought to see this place too?" he smirked.   
"Yes there is," Scarlet affirmed, her heart aflutter with the thought of bringing Donna to the campsite with her.  
"Come on, Scar, let's get in the van," Clifford said, before exaggeratedly coughing out, "beforethegoosefindsRudyagain."

With the moon now fully rising over the woods, the vampires were all safe and sound in the van and began to drive off, as Lola, sitting in the middle front seat, fiddled with the radio until a Little Richard song came on the radio.

As the vampires all began to sing along and laugh about the fact that none of them actually knew the words to Tutti Frutti and were just making it up as they went along, Clifford leaned back as he continued driving down the highway back to Hollywood, where anything goes as long as a certain teacher was nowhere to be found. 

"Hey Gio," he said, turning to look around at his friend who occupied the back seat on the ride home, "Why don't you pull out the map and tell us how much farther it is till the exit?"  
He was met with wide-eyed silence as the others slowly began to turn around, and Giovanni quickly blurted out, "Wait, I was in charge of the map?"


End file.
